Hi, I am running F7. Last night I opened a firefox page on a site that I visit regularily on my M$ machine (I am building the Linux machine to replace the M$ machine)

Although it displayed the correct web page, a message in the bottom left hand corner of the Firefox page told me that it was transferring data to a 4.ad something or other (I have the address but its at home, and i am writing this from work). On the right bottom corner was a progress bar.

I tried to stop this by closing the firefox window, however this didnt make any difference as i could still hear the drive activity. I dont know enough about F7 yet to know how to stop the process so I closed down the system.

I may be wrong, but this has never happened under M$ despite visiting the site regularily. I think the reason for this is the AV, Firewall and Mal/spy ware protection i have enabled and configured.

I downloaded AVG and installed that, however this wasnt a virus but more likely adware or spyware. I have to admit to disabling SElinux because the install guide (how to) i used, told me to.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for protecting my machine from this kind of activity. A search of the web and this forum just brings confusing information.

Unlikely you've been hit with Malware, more likely page caching. Also you can't
tell what the disk accesses were for - you are guessing.

For the basics in Firefox look in "Edit, Preferences, Security" and you'll see the basics.
The on the "Content" tab be sure to block pop-ups.

Quote:

Protection from Spyware

Firefox will not allow a Web site to download, install, or run programs on your computer without your explicit agreement. Period. You will be notified whenever downloading or installing software, and Firefox will always tell you what’s happening so that you can stay in control of your computer.

Thanks Stevea, I agree I am making some assumptions and the drive may have been unloading the cache or something, but that wasnt what it felt like and experience tells me it was downloading something.

I will have a read of the link you sent me, thanks and also check the security settings. Dont get me wrong, i am not having a go at firefox, in fact i only put Fedora on for a play, but have been so impressed with the whole thing that as i said in my previous post, I am looking to replace my M$ box with it.